Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Morris has stolen the hearts of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings audiences everywhere — but what on Earth is he? While most in Shang-Chi didn't seem to quite know either — including Trevor Slattery, who was mostly revealed that someone else could also see him — Morris' roots are actually buried deep in Chinese myth. Morris is a Hundun, a primordial being of Chinese legend. So what is a Hundun, and how does Morris compare to the legend?
Morris makes his first appearance in the film after Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing have been locked inside Xu Wenwu's compound. When Shang-Chi and Katy make the unexpected discovery of Trevor Slattery, who had been locked away for falsely portraying Shang-Chi's father, the real Mandarin, they are startled to find a faceless creature that has been inhabiting the dungeons with him. Trevor introduces the furry, winged creature as Morris, and warns that Morris is sensitive about the fact he is lacking a face. As a creature of the legendary village of Ta Lo, Morris helps the group safely navigate through the living maze that protects Ta Lo from the outside world.
Morris is the latest in a long line of creatures to join the growing list of Disney's irresistibly adorable sidekicks. This trend started with Baby Yoda, who quickly won over hearts when The Mandalorian hit Disney+ in 2019. Alligator Loki, a Loki variant, took fans by storm after his appearance on the 2021 Disney+ series Loki. Both of these iconic cuties gained their own cult followings, making appearances on merchandise almost everywhere — now, Morris is poised to join their ranks.
The Hundun, or Dijiang, is a faceless being of Chinese myth. The Hundun existed on Earth long before humanity as a being of chaos, its featureless face representing how it moved without direction. In the Shanhajing, the Hundun is described as taking the shape of a sack, with six feet, four wings, and no face or eyes. The creature was said to enjoy song and dance. While some depictions portray the Hundun as more human or more dog-like, what remains the same is its startling lack of features; something that remains in Shang-Chi's mythological world. The word Hundun can be translated to mean "muddled confusion," but has also come to encompass someone who is mentally dense or as innocent as a child. Across all of the myths, one thing that remains is the same is Hundun's aversion to do-gooders. Hundun is said to prefer those of vice and wickedness, turning against those who are considered virtuous.
The Hundun has roots in Confucian, Taoist, and other early Chinese myths. While the depictions are at times conflicting, the idea of chaos is one that is overlapping. In early Confucian writings, Hundun was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. In this text, Hundun was devoid of features and anything virtuous, and he delighted in causing chaos and wickedness, and he was eventually cast out of the empire. The Taoist texts describe the Hundun as existing before man, Heaven, and Earth, "featureless yet complete." Hundun, prior to appearing alongside Shang-Chi and the MCU's powerful new weapons, ruled as the Emperor of the Middle Sea, alongside Shu, Emperor of the South Sea, and Hu, Emperor of the North Sea. They decided to give Hundun the features he lacked, drilling seven holes — eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth — into Hundun over the span of seven days so he could live the same as they did. However, upon drilling the final hole, poor Hundun died. This myth serves to teach that one cannot force order onto chaos; if chaos comes to order, then it is no longer considered chaos.
Though Morris isn't ruling over any seas in Shang-Chi, he's pretty close to the depictions of a true Hundun. He's stylized after the depiction described in the Shanhajing, with six legs, four wings, and a lack of a face. While he hasn't shown a proclivity for song and dance just yet, he certainly has the ability — he does play dead alongside fake Mandarin, Trevor Slattery, quite convincingly. He seems to have a preternatural connection to Ta Lo and the magic around it, which could tie into the fact that the Hundun has existed since the beginning of time, giving him a connection to the Earth that other beings might not. Though he doesn't have any audible speaking lines or facial features, his body language — and Trevor's translations — portray Morris as a naive yet chaotic creature. Morris also seems to exist on a different moral alignment than his mythical predecessors, as he helped Shang-Chi and the group find Ta Lo. However, Trevor is clearly his favorite, as he is the one he communicates with directly, possibly due to Trevor's morally spotty past. The biggest difference between Morris and the Hundun myth is that the Hundun tends to be portrayed as a single figure in Chinese myth, but exists as an entire species in Shang-Chi.
Alongside Shang-Chi's Dweller-in-Darkness, who exists in a realm outside of our reality, Ta Lo is filled with incredible creatures. The beings inside Ta Lo all tie back to Chinese myth, just like Morris and the Hundun. As the group arrives at Ta Lo after narrowly escaping the living maze, they are first greeted by majestic, flaming birds, who Trevor explains are friends of Morris. These flaming birds are based on Fenghuang, an immortal bird with the body parts of various animals. Though Fenghuang are often compared to Phoenixes because of their flaming quality, these creatures aren't one and the same. Another creature in Ta Lo should have looked familiar to fans of Pokemon — what many mistook for Ninetales was the Huli Jing, a stark white fox with nine tails that is known for its ability to shapeshift into the form of a woman.
Inside the village of Ta Lo were the Chinese guardian giant lions, who are said to have the ability to drive off evil spirits that may attempt to harm the structure they've been assigned to protect. While most structures have guardian lions made of stone, Ta Lo is not most places — they have the real things. On the road to the village, the group's car is blocked by what Trevor describes as a "weird horse," but is likely meant to be a Qilin. The Qilin are kind and benevolent creatures, made up of several creatures to create what looks like a horse-dragon hybrid. The grandest beast of all in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the Great Protector. The Great Protector is a gloriously elegant dragon, which holds a place of high regard in Chinese myth. Dragons play a large role in Chinese legend, with many myths and celebrations tied to the beast that was believed to protect the order of the natural world and those who exist within it.
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